Curtains

Summer is zooming along. This afternoon, Iris performed in her second play of the summer season. Her nanny is moving into her college dorm next week. (She will be a resident assistant and needs to return to campus early for training.)

After the performance, we were going picnic at the beach, but no one had the time to pack sandwiches. We decided to go eat at the Redondo Beach pier instead. Iris fell asleep in the car. That should have been a clue. I parked at the Spectrum Club lot and we never made it to the pier. As soon as we passed the Cheesecake Factory, Iris would go no further. She told her nanny that she had gone there once before and said she really wanted to eat there again.

Iris posted about the show on her blog.

Aside:
We are so happy her nanny came home from college for the summer. We are even more happy that she was able to help out so many evenings. Marriage to a field scientist is not so glamorous. They work out in the field for weeks (if not months) at a time, usually in the summer. Day camps have much shorter hours than school and daycare. If it weren't for her nanny's help this summer, I don't think I could have coped.

We pay her decently. She told me that one of her college friends takes care of THREE kids, two of them diagnosed with special needs (but she suspects the youngest one is as well), for half what I pay her for taking care of Iris. I also reimburse mileage at the IRS rate.

I am going to miss the luxury of emailing my shopping list in the morning and coming home to find the kitchen stocked, the house picked up, and my kid happy, fed and bathed.

Fortunately, the Lufthansa strike is over and Bad Dad will be able to return as scheduled.